In many large parcel delivery systems, thousands of parcels are shipped every day from thousands of departure locations, routed to central hubs, and then redistributed and delivered to thousands of delivery locations. In many cases, parcels have committed delivery times, which can range from a few days to overnight delivery. For most parcel delivery companies, automation and electronic transmission and storage of information related to the parcels is a vital factor in processing and delivering parcels within shipment deadlines.
One area where automation has historically been a problem, however, is in the shipment of foreign origin parcels. Specifically, most of these parcels are subject to Customs regulations. This means that each parcel must be evaluated to determine whether Customs inspection is necessary. If inspection is necessary, the parcel must be routed to the Customs department in the hub for inspection prior to release for delivery. One problem is that the foreign origin parcels must be physically segregated from the domestic parcels prior to inspection. This typically requires that the parcel delivery company maintain a separate area for processing foreign origin parcels separate from its area for processing domestic parcels.
Another problem is that procedures for selecting shipments to be inspected and input of information concerning Customs' inspections have been mainly a manual operation. Given the fact, that as many as 100,000 foreign origin parcels may be processed through a hub on any given day, the delays caused by manual selection, routing, and reporting on Customs' inspections can jeopardize, if not delay shipping deadlines for these parcels.
FIGS. 1 and 2 provide a general illustration 10 of the conventional procedures used to process foreign origin parcels. When a shipment from a sender containing one or several parcels is originally provided to a parcel delivery company at a shipment location 12, information related to the shipment and each parcel in the shipment is stored electronically in data files. (See step 100). The information, once entered; is then transmitted to a central management system 14 at a central departure location 16. (See step 102). The shipments within the geographic area surrounding the departure location 16 are assimilated and transported to a central hub 18 by means of aircraft 20, ship, truck, or otherwise.
Importantly, as the shipments are of foreign origin many of them are subject to payment of duties and other taxes and also subject to Customs laws. For example, some of the shipments are considered imports as they are of foreign origin and are bound for delivery in the country where the central hub is located. Import shipments are typically subject to both duty taxes and Customs inspection. Other shipments are referred to as in-transit shipments. These are shipments that are merely passing through the central hub on their way to delivery in another country. For example, the shipment may have departed England for delivery in Mexico, but was processed in the U.S. during delivery. In-transit shipments are typically subject to Customs laws but not to duties.
With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, to speed processing of these shipments through brokerage and Customs, the data 22 associated with each shipment and each parcel in each shipment is typically transmitted ahead of the shipment to the central hub, where the shipment is to be processed and sorted for delivery. (See step 104). The data is transmitted and stored in the hub management system 28. At the central hub 18, information 24 for import shipments is provided from the hub management system 28 to a brokerage system 26. (See step 106). The brokerage system is used by individual brokers to assess duties and other taxes for each import parcel in an import shipment. The brokers add to the information 24 and transmit the information back to the hub management system 28. Following brokerage, information related to the import shipments, as well as the in-transit shipments, is made available to Customs 32 for determination of which shipments and which parcels of the shipment will be inspected when they arrive. (See step 108). It is at this point that severe time delays and inefficiency may be introduced into the system.
Specifically, with reference to FIG. 1, the brokerage system generates a hard copy of the information related to the foreign origin parcels. This printout is generally referred to as the manifest. The manifest includes information such as delivery address, shipment priority, weight, size, etc. for each parcel in an import and in-transit shipment. The manifest 30 is provided to Customs 32. (See step 108). Customs manually reviews the manifest and selects shipments or individual parcels from a shipment that they wish to inspect. The marked up copy of the manifest 34 is then provided to a user, which inputs the selections to the hub management system 28. (See step 110). Shipments having parcels selected for inspection are given a “hold” status.
After Customs has selected parcels from shipments for inspection, the shipments are then available for sorting at the hub. Specifically, in these conventional systems, foreign origin shipments are processed in a designated area apart from the domestic shipments. During unload and sorting, shipments having parcels selected for inspection are taken to a holding area, not shown. Parcels from the shipments selected for inspection are then manually routed to Customs 32 for inspection. (See step 114). The remaining shipments not having parcels selected for inspection are placed on the conveyor system 36 and sorted for delivery. (See step 112).
With reference to FIG. 1, when the parcels are routed to Customs, the Custom inspector is provided with a second hard copy manifest 38 containing information about the shipments and individual parcels selected for inspection. (See step 116). During the inspection process, the Customs inspector inspects the parcels and makes written notations concerning the inspection directly on the hard copy of the manifest 38 providing a marked up manifest 40. (See step 118). After inspection, the Customs inspector determines whether the parcels should be released, held, or confiscated. These notations are made on the marked up copy of the manifest 40. This marked up copy 40 is then used to manually update the status registers associated with each parcel in the hub management system 28. (See step 120). Shipments containing parcels that have been inspected and released are placed on the sort and conveyor system 36 and sorted for delivery, while shipments containing parcels that are either held or confiscated by Customs are warehoused or otherwise retained. (See step 122).
Importantly, with reference to FIG. 1, the marked up manifests 34 and 40 are both retained as a history of the Customs inspection. (See step 124). The marked up manifest 34 provides proof of presentation of the parcels to Customs, and the marked up manifest 40 provides proof of inspection by Customs. The hardcopies are placed in a physical filing system 42, such as warehouse, and retained for an extended period of time.
As can be seen from FIGS. 1 and 2, conventional systems for processing and inspecting foreign origin parcels have significant drawbacks. They are prone to time delay and human error, as they require Customs inspectors to manually view all of the data from the foreign origin parcels in paper form and select from this manual inspection, parcels for inspection. Further, these conventional procedures require physical storage of the marked up manifests for record keeping. Physical storage and information retrieval can become a problem. Specifically, U.S. Customs requires retention for at least five years. Additionally, physical storage of paper copies of the inspection does not allow for easy retrieval of data or electronic searches of the data and is also not conducive to generation of reports concerning the inspection. Thus, in an industry where minimizing time delay in the shipment of parcels is a must, the current system for processing and inspection of foreign origin parcels is disadvantageous.
As also noted above, in conventional parcel delivery systems, the foreign origin shipments are typically segregated from domestic shipments. This requires separate handing and sorting systems for both types of shipments. The requirement for separate systems requires not only added cost in equipment, but also added plant space and real estate. Also, most conventional sorting systems still require manual sorting of parcels based on destination for delivery.
To this last point, United Parcel Service™ (UPS) is currently implementing an automated sortation system for sorting parcels. This new system uses information associated with the parcel, such as delivery address, shipment priority, weight, size, etc., to effectively route the parcel to its proper destination. When parcels are delivered to the central hub, a series of conveyor belts and other processing machinery read information concerning the parcels that is stored in bar codes on the parcel and stored in the automated sorting and conveyor system. The automated system distributes the parcels to proper bins, pallets, etc. where they are then loaded with other parcels having delivery locations in the same geographic area, and then shipped for delivery.
Given the advantages of this newly designed automated system, it would be advantageous to incorporate the processing of the foreign origin parcels into this system. Specifically, it would be advantageous to allow both domestic and foreign shipments to be processed on the same sortation system, with foreign origin shipments selected for inspection being routed to inspection using the system and routed for delivery after inspection is complete.
In addition to the need to expedite inspection of import shipments, there are also issues with exports. Specifically, there are considerable limitations on the export of goods. Some of these relate to the goods themselves, such as certain agriculture products, encrypted software, etc. Further, some issues relate to destinations for exports. There are restrictions on export of goods to certain countries and to certain individuals and entities. In light of this, close inspection of exports is typically required by various governmental agencies from Agriculture to the Department of Justice. As with imports, most inspection of exports is performed manually using data printouts, and inspection notes are handwritten. As such, similar to the issues with imports, more reliable and efficient means for inspection of exports is needed.
In addition to the need to expedite inspection of shipments, there is also an emerging need for increased inspection of items, people, etc. entering the country. Specifically, there has been a recent increase in many security measures, especially those related to air travel and package shipping, both foreign and domestic. As discussed above, with regard to import and intransit shipments, all information is currently handled in paper form. It would be advantageous to provide electronic information that could be searched based on criteria to identify shipments that may pose a security threat. Similarly, there has been a significant increase in transportation security for airports, bus lines, and trains. Many security measures are directed at point or origin of passengers, passengers' citizenship, etc. There are needs in this area for mechanisms that allow for electronic searches of passenger information.